The issue of where to store what could be 17,000 tons of hazardous mercury waste has pitted state against state and become an issue in Colorado’s gubernatorial race.

Gov. Bill Ritter on Thursday said a federal proposal to consider the Grand Junction area as a potential dumping ground for the hazardous waste is “deeply flawed” and needs to be retooled.

Seven sites nationally are being considered.

Ritter outlined a series of concerns, including contamination of the Colorado River and its tributaries, in a letter Thursday to Energy Secretary Steven Chu.

Earlier this week, Ritter, a Democrat seeking re-election in 2010, urged Coloradans to tell the Energy Department’s top czar to send the mercury somewhere else.

“Toxic chemical waste should be stored close to where it was originally generated, not shipped across the country to be dumped in Colorado,” Ritter wrote in the campaign missive, which included a link for contributions.

The e-mail puzzled state Senate Minority Leader Josh Penry, one of two Grand Junction Republicans running for governor.

“Does anyone think it’s strange that the governor doesn’t just pick up the phone and call the secretary of energy and President Obama himself?” Penry said.

Penry, former U.S. Rep. Scott Mc Innis and Evergreen businessman Dan Maes are vying for the GOP nomination for governor.

The liberal group Progress Now last week ripped McInnis and Penry, claiming they were staying quiet on an issue in their backyard.

The Department of Energy held a hearing in Grand Junction on July 21. The Ritter administration at the time expressed its concerns about shipping mercury to the state.

Penry the next day sent a letter to the Department of Energy outlining many of the same concerns. The letter was written on Senate minority letterhead.

Penry said his staff also has made calls to Washington about the proposal.

As for McInnis, he is against shipping mercury to Colorado but is letting local politicians handle it, said Sean Duffy, a McInnis spokesman. Republican state Rep. Steve King, R-Grand Junction, has come out against the proposal.

“We didn’t feel compelled to bang around in it because Steve was on top of it,” Duffy said.

The Department of Energy is also looking at sites in Idaho, Missouri, Nevada, South Carolina, Texas and Washington. The Idaho governor has already said “no,” and the Kansas City City Council has passed a resolution against it.

Beginning in 2013, the United States can no longer export surplus elemental mercury to developing countries with less restrictive environmental regulations.

The bill also requires the Energy Department to identify a safe, long-term storage site for up to 17,000 tons of mercury.

Mercury is toxic, and exposure can permanently damage or fatally injure the brain and kidneys, according to various websites.

The Supreme Court ruled unanimously Wednesday that whistleblower protections passed by Congress in the wake of the financial crisis of 2008 apply only when those alleging corporate misdeeds bring their information to the government.

A prominent white nationalist is suing Twitter for banning his accounts at a time when social networks are trying to crack down on hateful and abusive content without appearing to censor unpopular opinions.

The social media service Twitter is believed to have suspended thousands of accounts for being automated bots, or for other policy violations, drawing outcry from fringe conservative media figures who lost followers in the move.